A former Chicago cop accused of conspiring with murderous drug traffickers has been ordered free on $1 million bond to give him the chance to go to church and prepare for trial.But prosecutors said Glenn Lewellen is a danger to the community and filed a federal appeal Wednesday to overturn U.S. District Judge Joan Gotschall’s May 10 decision to grant him bond.
Lewellen and his family have come up with the property to post bond, but he remains behind bars. The judge has scheduled a hearing Friday to decide whether to place him on home incarceration with electronic monitoring as he awaits the outcome of the government’s appeal.
Gotschall said she “went back and forth” before deciding to release Lewellen on bond for racketeering and drug charges. A key factor was testimony from his family and pastor that he turned to religion in recent years. “I would like Mr. Lewellen to have the ability to go to church and become as involved with his pastor as he possibly can,” Gotschall said, adding that bond would give him a “reasonable opportunity to prepare for trial.”
Prosecutors said Lewellen does not qualify for bond because he committed violent acts, framed people, lied in court and said he wanted to kill himself when he was arrested. He is a flight risk and a danger to the community and himself, prosecutors said.
In 1998, Lewellen, a narcotics officer, became partners-in-crime with his informant, Saul Rodriguez, a narcotics trafficker, prosecutors said. They and others committed kidnappings and ripoffs of drug dealers, even after Lewellen left the department in 2002, prosecutors said. The crew allegedly operated through 2006.
In the government’s appeal of Lewellen’s bond, prosecutors made a new allegation that he helped frame a man who angered Rodriguez because the man — Juan Luevano — was dating Rodriguez’s ex-girlfriend. In 2000, Rodriguez planted cocaine in Luevano’s home and Chicago Police officers arrested him based on a tip from Rodriguez. Rodriguez and another co-defendant later murdered Luevano on June 3, 2000, prosecutors said. Rodriguez is charged in Luevano’s slaying, but Lewellen is not.
The government’s appeal also indicated for the first time that Lewellen helped kidnap a high-level member of a Mexican drug cartel in 2003. Lewellen received more than $500,000 from a ransom the crew collected, prosecutors said.
When he was arrested in November in Las Vegas, Lewellen allegedly told federal agents he would have killed himself if he had the chance. In court papers, though, he denies he was suicidal.